February 06, 2014

Area mayors pitch full-day GO Train service to Sousa

The area's mayors again made their pitch for two-way, all day long GO Train service between Kitchener and Union Station in Toronto to Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa today.

As part of a pre-budget consultation that included Kitchener Centre MPP John Milloy, outgoing Kitchener mayor Carl Zehr made the case on behalf of Waterloo mayor Brenda Halloran and Guelph Mayor Karen Farbridge for provincial and federal government funds to pay for the capital costs of greatly increasing GO Train rail service between our area and downtown Toronto.

They claim the stretch of land between Waterloo-Wellington and Toronto represent an "innovation supercluster," as Farbridge calls it, and want a 10 year capital committment from the higher levels of government in order to pay for it.

The cost of additional trains, crews, fuel and the potential need for rail line improvements and related infrastructure would require millions more in funding.

But the mayors counter the stretch between Waterloo-Wellington and Toronto houses 34,000 tech jobs as it stands. A third of those workers commute between the two areas, and they could be joined by as many as 37,000 other "tech and creative workers" by 2031.

The bigger selling feature is that more train trips between Kitchener and Guelph could ease congestion on Highway 7.

But an expanded highway is already on its way, promised by the McGuinty Liberals as they sought to sweeten things during their failed bid at a de-facto majority in the Kitchener-Waterloo byelection of 2012.

According to an announcement by Ontario's Transportation Minister, construction on a new four lane to replace Highway 7 is to start by 2015, and finish sometime after 2016.

UPDATE: Kate Sullivan at Mayor Farbridge's offices clarified with me that Farbridge and Halloran weren't at yesterday's meeting. Zehr spoke on behalf of all three of them.

Comments

Fine and dandy. How about we make the current 2 trains work smoothly first. Absolutely no transit connections when the trains arrive and no parking are being ignored by this mayor and councillors. Staff just don't give a flying doodle with half hearted attempts of holding buses and using lame excuses like the trains always late. Umm do a shuttle bus how hard is that? And parking. how hard is it to find 25 spots in the lot near the station? Acton did. Kitchener did. Why not Guelph?

Guelph had best figure out the mess for a transit system already extant before lecturing others. A good start would be to integrate Guelph Transit with GRT...or even better, petitioning Ontario for Guelph to be part of Waterloo Region, and enjoy the economies of scale in many areas. As it stands, buses would be faster and far more economical, as much as I love trains.

It would really be best to get jobs (read companies) to this area. Guelph has some huge unused factories and lands that needs to be filled. Shipping people to the big cities simply is putting the cart in front of the horse.

Merging with GRT is the worst idea ever, perhaps Stephen S has not heard how WatRegion taxpayers are being hit paying for an unnecessary LRT megaproject, while people cannot get to or from Toronto without hige inconvenience and cost. The lack of train service or will to find a way to pay for it is typical politicking at the expense of good sense. Currently, even with the 'facility fee' gouge, greyhound is the best service from Guelph to TO. Maybe some of those Einstein. Politician should ask why that is.

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Joanne Shuttleworth is the newsroom lead in municipal affairs coverage for the Guelph Mercury. She is a former Guelph YWCA Woman of Distinction honouree and a past winner of an Ontario Newspapers Award for her work as an editor. You can reach her at jshuttleworth@guelphmercury.com

July 2015

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